Sweetwater
Senior Member
Memorial weekend 2004 or 2005. My two best friends of 40 years...their wives...and my ex went to West Point for the weekend. We all chipped in on a 24 ft pontoon rental.
After not catching a fish all weekend...on Sunday we finally went to Maple creek...45 minutes ride away from our campsite. On our first drift...my ex caught a huge slab crappie.
As we set up for our second drift...I glanced back toward the dam...and saw a big, black, straight as a ruler squall heading right for us. I said "we got to go". Everyone else disagreed.
That is....until that firs 60 mph gust hit us.
Then....I piloted us back to camp. Through the hardest squall I have ever been in. 40 mph sustained winds gusting to 60. Lightning popping like artillery. Driving rain. Swells so big the channel marker bouys were dissappearing in the valleys.
The only thing keeping us from being blown over was the 500 pounds of my buddies wives across the back seat. I dont know how we made it.
While everyone else was terrified...I was mad. I cussed them the whole way back for being so stupid....for not listening to me. I kept looking back from the pilots seat cussing them...saying"Yall scared? Good!" Like I said...I was too mad to be scared....and my being mad scared them almost as much as that ride did.
And btw...another thing no one listened to me about was packing warm clothes. After the squall...temps dropped from high 80's to the 50's. They froze. I didn't.
After not catching a fish all weekend...on Sunday we finally went to Maple creek...45 minutes ride away from our campsite. On our first drift...my ex caught a huge slab crappie.
As we set up for our second drift...I glanced back toward the dam...and saw a big, black, straight as a ruler squall heading right for us. I said "we got to go". Everyone else disagreed.
That is....until that firs 60 mph gust hit us.
Then....I piloted us back to camp. Through the hardest squall I have ever been in. 40 mph sustained winds gusting to 60. Lightning popping like artillery. Driving rain. Swells so big the channel marker bouys were dissappearing in the valleys.
The only thing keeping us from being blown over was the 500 pounds of my buddies wives across the back seat. I dont know how we made it.
While everyone else was terrified...I was mad. I cussed them the whole way back for being so stupid....for not listening to me. I kept looking back from the pilots seat cussing them...saying"Yall scared? Good!" Like I said...I was too mad to be scared....and my being mad scared them almost as much as that ride did.
And btw...another thing no one listened to me about was packing warm clothes. After the squall...temps dropped from high 80's to the 50's. They froze. I didn't.